Silverlight 5 Is Coming

Silverlight certainly has a future at Microsoft, and the company is ready to provide guarantees of this, after the fate of the technology appeared to be in balance, after remarks from Bob Muglia, President of the Server and Tools Division at Microsoft at PDC 2010.

Since this year’s Professional Developers Conference, Muglia made sure to provide clarification indicating that although the focus with Silverlight has changed somewhat, the technology will continue to be strategic to the software giant.

Early in December 2010, the Redmond company will discuss the future of Silverlight, with one Microsoft employee believing that the first details on Silverlight 5 will be shared.

Microsoft still has to confirm this officially, but since Silverlight vNext will be provided without a doubt, and judging by the monikers users with previous releases, Silverlight 5 could very well be the successor of the current version, Silverlight 4.

“On December 2nd Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President of .Net Developer platform, will unveil the future of Silverlight in his keynote at the free Silverlight Firestarter event.

“The event will be streamed live from Microsoft’s Redmond HQ, kicking off a day of dedicated Silverlight content,” a member of the Silverlight team noted.

With the imminent release of Internet Explorer 9 and the strong focus on hardware acceleration, Silverlight can lose its appeal for web developers, especially considering the advantages of HTML5 applications on top of Windows for the delivery of plug-in free rich web experiences.

Still, Microsoft underlines that it not only remains committed to Silverlight, but that the technology can easily co-exist with HTML5 on the web, as well as complement it by offering experiences which HTML5 is incapable of delivering.

“The Silverlight Firestarter is a free, one-day event dedicated to Silverlight and has something for all skill levels. There are labs for those just getting started with Silverlight and sessions for those looking to enhance their existing Silverlight skills,” the Silverlight team representative added.

“If you do join us on campus you can also look forward to meeting the product team in-person, grabbing some exclusive Silverlight ‘swag’, special giveaways, and a party at the end of the day.

“If you can’t make it to Redmond to attend the event in person, watch the live stream and participate in an on-line question and answer session with the Silverlight product team during the event.”

Microsoft did not say whether a preview of the next generation of Silverlight will be offered in December 2010 for early adopters, however, the company is bound to at least share details about the successor of Silverlight 4.